Dear Family and Friends,
This has been one of the most draining weeks of my mission. The best part of that is that its been mostly spiritual exhaustion. we started the week with heaps of tracting, and teaching a lesson to that couple that we found tracting. we covered LOTS of stuff, and over 2 lessons basically taught everything we knew about the spirit world and the significance of families and why the temple is so important. i think the most common word coming from them was "brilliant." ya they're from the UK.
besides that, we also had interviews this week, and along with interviews, about 4 hours of training on this new tracting method. it was intense. haha, i told president about my back issues, and after the rest of the interview he showed me some yoga stuff to do to help it out. :D i love that man. I asked him some deep doctrine questions and just some nitty gritty details about joseph smith. it was cool. after that, i went back to the training. it was over the training that we received at my first ever zone conference. it was by president richard's son. the jist of the training, was instead of just jumping right into the teaching, to talk for the first 30 seconds and show empathy for any concerns that they may have, testify of the truthfulness of what we share, and then ask for 3 minutes to explain why we're there. its extremely effective, and it is also difficult to do correctly. its something that i have been trying to apply since that first training, but i've struggled to do it right, and to do it every time. but i've worked really hard on it this week.
We also went on trade-offs this week with the Zone leaders. I stayed in my area, and Elder Harmon came in. he's awesome, and he's a great leader. unfortunately, we had NO appointments that day, and so we spent the day finding. lots of tracting. but we found 3 people to teach, which was good, and it helped boost my testimony of tracting. oh, we also didnt have the car, so we walked everywhere- that day i was just exhausted full stop.
then yesterday, at church, the sacrament was really spiritual for me- I read the lyrics to "A Poor Wafaring Man of Grief" and about started crying. i realized how much i had left to grow, and to learn, and to become. i also realized that i've been on my mission for almost 6 months, and i still feel like im fresh as. But, according to president, thats good, at least im not feeling like i'd rather be home, and not on a mission. i just realized how quicky the 2 years goes- i thought it was forever- but its quickly becoming evident that it's not nearly enough time. Anyway, that was a look inside my week! :)
mom, your garden experience sounds... well, not as fun as it should have been. man i miss those tomato fights. (by the way, "tomato" is pronounced "tuh-mah-toe" in Australia.) but i'm sure collin will be happy to take those hoses out of the ground for you. :) and could you send some of the rain and fog my way? please? its getting to be high summer here, although the worst wont come until december or january- but its HOT. and my flat doesnt have air conditioning- we just have like 4 fans running 24/7, and its like 80% humidity all the time. so, please, some rain and fog would be soooo nice. oh, and ya, pickled beets are pretty common in hamburgers here, although not in fast food. i've had it a couple times, but i dont think it goes extremely well with beef.
cara, your BEFY experience sounds awesome. i'm glad you were able to have such an enjoyable time. its great when the spirit actually hits a big group of people like that. and your friend Kelsey being "spiritually exhausted-" that is awesome! I didnt know what that felt like til i got out here. when you feel the spirit that strong, for that long, it actually drains you. :) when's her baptismal date again?
Whitney- glad you got that letter- and yes, i'm gaining weight- im 65.5 Kilos now. i wont tell you how many pounds that is- ill let you figure that out by yourself. :P we'll put it this way though, i have pants that have elastic built into the waist, for the purpose of allowing weight gain, and they're about 2/3 stretched right now, although i've started running again, so hopefully i'll be able to get the extra stuff off. and your BYUI days sound like you're having heaps of fun! good place eh? :)
anyway, cara you should have gotten the letter i sent last week by now... it has some pictures in it. :)
ok, my time's up. time to go. i love you all so much! keep being awesome.
love,
your favorite missionary,
Elder Christensen
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